LS>What I would like to do is just fill the screen with a particular
 LS>character to give a textured look in the most efficient manner
 LS>possible.
 LS>In my case, ASCII 176.

 LS> textcolor(WHITE);
 LS> textbackground(BLUE);
 LS> clrscr();
 LS>    for (int j=1; j<=25; j++){
 LS>        for (int i=1; i<=80; i++){
 LS>            gotoxy(i,j);
 LS>            cputs("°");
 LS>            }
 LS>        }

Given:

  USHORT      c = 176 | (((7 << 4) | 1) << 8);

then

  VIOMODEINFO vm;

  VioGetMode(&vm,0);
  VioWrtNCell((char *)&c,vm.row * vm.col,0,0,0);

or just

  VioScrollUp(0,0,-1,-1,-1,(char *)&c,0);

--- XHEd-OS/2 1.22